Virtual PC 2004 on Hyper-Threading Systems and an Intermittent Freezing or Pausing Issue

If you are running Virtual PC 2004 SP1 on a Hyper-Threaded system (though this is not a universal problem) then you may experience an issue where the guest OS periodically freezes or halts, may be for a couple of seconds every few minutes or so – somewhat frustrating on that blazingly fast new HT system you just unpacked with more passion than a child on Christmas morningJ.

Well there is a hot fix available that should cure the issue, alas for the moment this is not directly available on the web so you will need to call your local Microsoft PSS (Product Support) and ask them to send you the patch - the qfe number you need to quote is qfe889677 - there are two patches available - one if you did an integrated VPC 2004 SP1 install and the other if you did a VPC 2004 RTM install and then applied SP1.

This was just released internally a week or two ago and I applied it to my Dell Inspiron 5150 and the Guest OSs now run as expected and life is good, lol, ok life is pretty good either wayJ